Bernzott Capital Advisors, an investment management firm, published its “US Small Cap Value Fund” second-quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. The fund recorded a quarterly portfolio return of +1.5% for the second quarter of 2021, compared to its benchmarks, the R200V Index that was up by 4.29%, and the R2500V Index which gained 5.0% for the same period. You can view the fund’s top 5 holdings to have an idea about their top bets for 2021.
In the Q2 2021 investor letter of Bernzott Capital, the fund mentioned Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE: GVA) and discussed its stance on the firm. Granite Construction Incorporated is a Watsonville, California-based construction company with a $1.7 billion market capitalization. GVA delivered a 45.19% return since the beginning of the year, extending its 12-month returns to 115.68%. The stock closed at $38.78 per share on August 19, 2021.
Here is what Bernzott Capital has to say about Granite Construction Incorporated in its Q2 2021 investor letter:
“Granite Construction (GVA): A heavy civil construction company involved in building roads, bridges, water and public infrastructure projects. Unlike many peers, the company is vertically integrated, processing aggregates for asphalt and other construction materials. In today’s tight supply environment, vertical integration should convey a competitive advantage regarding supply availability and cost. The company should benefit from a positive multi-year funding backdrop driven by the need to upgrade and improve deteriorating and aging infrastructure. California, where the company generates 35% of revenues and maintains leading market share, is in the early stages of a $54 billion program to fix roads, freeways and bridges across the state. The passage of a federal infrastructure bill would add support to funding levels. Margins are poised to inflect higher as the company rolls off large, low margin projects, and emphasizes smaller, higher return contracts. This should equate to mid-teens EBITDA margins and stronger earnings and free cash flow generation going forward.”
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Based on our calculations, Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE: GVA) was not able to clinch a spot in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. GVA was in 14 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the first half of 2021, compared to 13 funds in the previous quarter. Granite Construction Incorporated (NYSE: GVA) delivered a -0.62% return in the past 3 months.
Hedge funds’ reputation as shrewd investors has been tarnished in the last decade as their hedged returns couldn’t keep up with the unhedged returns of the market indices. Our research has shown that hedge funds’ small-cap stock picks managed to beat the market by double digits annually between 1999 and 2016, but the margin of outperformance has been declining in recent years. Nevertheless, we were still able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that outperformed the S&P 500 ETFs by 115 percentage points since March 2017 (see the details here). We were also able to identify in advance a select group of hedge fund holdings that underperformed the market by 10 percentage points annually between 2006 and 2017. Interestingly the margin of underperformance of these stocks has been increasing in recent years. Investors who are long the market and short these stocks would have returned more than 27% annually between 2015 and 2017. We have been tracking and sharing the list of these stocks since February 2017 in our quarterly newsletter.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
